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Author Topic:   GOP Topples Daschle and Sweeps South
Lost Leo
unregistered
posted November 03, 2004 12:34 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Just goes to show the Democrtic Party needs to regain control from the radical left...

they keep losing... and losing... and losing...


GOP Topples Daschle and Sweeps South

By LEIGH STROPE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Republicans toppled Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, winning their biggest Senate prize after sweeping the South, including a Florida seat Wednesday. Alaska remained undecided.

Republicans were assured 54 Senate seats, expanding their current 51-48 margin, with one Democratic-leaning independent.


Daschle, who was elected to the Senate in 1986 and also served eight years in the House, planned to concede midday in Sioux Falls, S.D., according to congressional sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.


Democrats hoped for a defection to ease the pain. Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record) said he would consider switching parties if President Bush (news - web sites) were re-elected.


"I'm not ruling it out," Chafee told The Providence Journal. Known for moderate views that often run counter to the Bush administration, Chafee said he cast a write-in vote for Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, in Tuesday's election, calling it a "symbolic protest."


In Florida, Democrat Betty Castor conceded defeat Wednesday in a tight contest with Mel Martinez, a Cuban emigrant who left Bush's Cabinet to run for the seat opened by retiring Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat. Martinez will be the nation's first Cuban-American senator.


"This is as close as it gets, in my humble estimation," Castor said. She won 48 percent of the vote to Martinez's 49 percent.


In Alaska, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (news, bio, voting record), who was considered the most endangered Republican, was leading former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles.


Republicans were surprised by their Senate showing, winning competitive races in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana — where the GOP won its first seat since Reconstruction.


"Nobody expected that," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Wednesday on NBC's "Today." Frist, whose name has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, planned a victory tour in which he would join the newly elected Republican senators from the South.


Daschle, who was labeled an obstructionist by Republicans, garnered 49 percent of the vote to 51 percent for his GOP challenger, former Rep. John Thune. With all precincts reporting, Daschle fell short by about 4,500 votes.


The last time a Senate leader was unseated was in 1952, when Barry Goldwater of Arizona turned Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland out of office.


An Associated Press exit poll showed that South Dakota voters concerned with moral values and terrorism helped Thune.


Democrats had a nearly insurmountable hurdle to take control of the Senate, since most of the competitive races were in states where Bush was strong.


In Illinois, state Sen. Barack Obama easily won, making him the only black member of the new Senate that convenes in January. He cautioned against a GOP mandate.


"You still need 60 votes in the Senate to make things happen," Obama said Wednesday on NBC's "Today." "The Republicans don't have 60 votes. My hope would be that they recognize that, and the Democrats are willing to serve as a loyal opposition."


The strengthened Republican Senate probably will mean more votes to confirm nominees to the Supreme Court in a second Bush term. One Republican winner, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, is in line to become chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites), which holds confirmation hearings on court nominees.


In other notable races:

_Former GOP Rep. Tom Coburn trounced Rep. Brad Carson (news, bio, voting record) in an Oklahoma race less competitive than predicted.

_Incumbent Republican Jim Bunning in Kentucky won a narrow victory over challenger Daniel Mongiardo.

_In South Carolina, GOP Rep. Jim DeMint (news, bio, voting record) handily defeated Democratic challenger Inez Tenenbaum after stirring controversy by saying unwed mothers and homosexuals shouldn't be school teachers.

_Richard Burr won North Carolina by more than 5 percent over Democrat Erskine Bowles, the one-time chief of staff to former President Clinton (news - web sites).

_In Louisiana, Rep. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record) won an outright majority of more than 51 percent and avoided the runoff that under state law would have taken place Dec. 4 if he had not topped 50 percent.

_Democrats will have the first Hispanic senator in more than a quarter century. Ken Salazar was narrowly elected in Colorado over Republican beer executive Pete Coors.

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TINK
unregistered
posted November 03, 2004 12:48 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We're very proud of Lincoln up here in Rhode Island. And even more so his daddy John. I see he taught his son well - principles are more important than political parties. Good honorable men, both of them.

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miss_apples
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posted November 03, 2004 12:54 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I agree with your first statement Lost Leo. The democrat Party does need to be taken back from the radicals...its scaring votes away!

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Lost Leo
unregistered
posted November 03, 2004 02:56 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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Lost Leo
unregistered
posted November 03, 2004 03:49 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
GUNS, GOD, GAYS


"The Democrats' positions on guns, God and gays has alienated millions of suburban and rural voters. The party needs to find a way to talk to them again if it is going to win national elections but it won't be easy," said University of Texas political scientist Bruce Buchanan.


Republican political consultant Bill Greener said people in the nation's "heartland," where Republicans racked up one victory over another, often saw urban Democrats on the East and West Coasts as smug and elitist.


"If you project a view that people who express strong religious faith are a threat, people who hold that faith are going to feel a sense of resentment," he said.


In many ways, the Democrats have become a coalition of minorities -- blacks, homosexuals, Jews, the unmarried and the unreligious. Bush's political strategist Karl Rove characterized the typical Democrat as "somebody with a doctorate ... people who imbibed the values of the sixties and seventies and stuck with them."


In the immediate term, the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is likely to be between those on the left led by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites), who will argue that the party needs to sharpen its differences with Republicans, and those who would like to see the party find a way to appeal again to middle class and rural voters who appear to have written the party off.


"We're sick and tired of losing," said Steve Achelpohl, head of the Nebraska Democratic Party. "There are a lot of angry candidates out here because our candidates were better qualified, and they didn't win."

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 03, 2004 04:40 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The problem is that when Democrats try to talk on those issues, no one believes them.

Their votes in Congress prove they are liars when they talk about guns and the Second Amendment or talk about gay rights or abortion. They cannot continue to say they are for or against something while voting the opposite when it counts, on the record....in Congress.

It would take someone pretty dense to not see through their lies, as voters saw through Kerry.

If the Democrats are to remain relevant in American politics, they will need to raise up a totally new generation of Democrat politicians from outside the current party structure because every one of the Democrats is already on the record.....many time, on the record.

I would rather see a growing Libertarian Party than a resurrection of the liberal Democrat party to provide balance to the Republican Party

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